Dexter Vega could use some help from John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee in this Coastal Florida mystery. Vega is scraping together pennies to buy his next beer when a wealthy real estate investor asks him to look into the drowning death of his son—in four feet of water off Siesta Key. Thrown into a contrasting world of beach bums and real estate moguls, Vega soon discovers that someone wants to stifle his investigation at all cost—including his life.

For fans of John D. MacDonald and his coastal Florida mysteries, The Last Breath by Danny Lopez will rekindle the flame.

Unemployed newspaper reporter Dexter Vega is hired to investigate the drowning of Liam Fleming, the son of a wealthy real estate investor in Siesta Key.

Vega’s search for clues takes him from one end of this picturesque barrier island off the coast of Sarasota to the other. But nothing adds up. Liam was young, an experienced swimmer, apparently healthy—and drowned in four feet of water. And why was Liam living in a beach shack? Why was he buying properties and not selling them?

The police are getting nowhere as they identify every beach bum on Siesta Key as a suspect. But Vega narrows his investigation to two—one who disappears, and the other he’s falling in love with. Beach bums and hippies go missing, while greed, beachfront property, and drugs swirl in vicious loops—and when they converge, Vega puts his life on the line to find the truth.